BOOK CXXXVIII Diseases. Earthquakes. son by the Portuguese. But many parts of the country, particularly such as are humid and marshy, are considered unwholesome. The inhabitants of Quarteira, Lagos, Silves and San Marcos d'Assera in Algarve, as well as those of Silveiras and Monte-Moro-Novo in Alen-Tejo, are subject to different maladies, attributable to local causes. Pezzo-de Regan, Chaves, Braganza and Miranda in Tras-os-Montes possess a sad celebrity. The same may be said of Almeirim in Estremadura, and almost all the southern bank of the Tagus between the Rio-Almanzor and the country near Lisbon, of the southern declivities on the Estrella, and the lands watered by the Mondego from Coimbra to Figuerra in the province of Beira. Some diseases are most prevalent in particular situations; thus at Lisbon, apoplexy, paralysis, liver and breast complaints are more common than in other parts of the country, and the variations of temperature occasion different sorts of fevers, and other diseases produced by suppressed perspiration. The people in the northern provinces are subject to rheumatism and pleurisy, and the salt marshes on the coast produce obstructions and dropsy. A sort of leprosy attacks the working classes in Beira and intermittent fevers, dropsy and anthrax are not unfrequent in Alen-Tejo; lastly, the inhabitants of Algarve are exposed to gastric fevers, and to a certain inflammation known by the name of mal de Bariga, which medical men attribute to the great quantity of unripe figs that constitute the principal food of the lower orders during three or four months in the year.* The frequency of earthquakes may be considered the greatest calamity to which the southern part of Portugal is exposed; a year seldom passes away without the recurrence of several shocks, and since the eleventh century Lisbon has been fifteen times more or less injured. It has been observed that they happen in the months of October and April, and particularly after the first rains that succeed the heat and droughts. These facts are important, inasmuch as they prove an invisible relation between the at * Balbi, Essai Statistique. BOOK mospheric phenomena and those taking place in the depths of the earth. The data hitherto collected concerning vol- CXXXVIII canoes and the shocks which they produce, are extremely vague; but enough is known to prove that the subterranean communications in which they are developed, extend to a great distance; the famous earthquake that overturned Lisbon in 1755, was felt almost at the same instant in Africa, Ireland and America. It would be incorrect to estimate the mineral wealth of Mineral wealth. Portugal from the inconsiderable profits gained by the inhabitants; a more accurate notion of its value and importance may be inferred from the facts recently published by M. Balbi. Few countries in Europe have a greater number of mineral springs: there are ten in the province of Mino, six in Tras-os-Montes, seventeen in Beira, twelve in Estremadura, nine in Alen-Tejo, and two in Algarva. These are either gaseous, saline, sulphurcous, ferruginous or merely warm; all of them are of a temperature more or less elevated. The Carthaginians obtained their metals from the same country; it possesses mines of gold, silver, iron, lead and tin; but it is now dependent on foreigners for these substances, which, if well worked, might form a lucrative branch of exportation. The coal mines are for the most part neglected, the salt marshes are only worked with profit; the number of workmen employed in them, thirty years ago, was equal to five thousand four hundred, and the annual quantity of salt to 384,000 casks; but much less of the same article is now exported; the annual produce does not exceed 140,000 casks, of which the value in English money may be estimated at L.100,000. ture. Agriculture is in a less advanced state than in most of the Agriculcorn countries in Europe; a quantity sufficient for the consumption of the inhabitants is not produced in the kingdom; on an average, 150,000 measures of grain are imported every year, and it costs more than L.1,500,000. It may be added too, that only a sixth part of the imported grain is brought from the Portuguese colonies. M. Balbi, however, believes that enough is produced in ordinary years to maintain the inhabitants; he attributes the necessity of exportation to the consumption at Lisbon, into which place, from BOOK the want of roads, supplies cannot be brought from the inteCXXXVIII rior. The same cause is not without its influence on the agriculture of the country; the freedom of the port at Lisbon serves only to aggravate the evil, in as much as foreign corn is thus attracted into the kingdom. Other causes retard the development of agricultural industry; it may be sufficient to mention the heavy imposts to which the peasantry are subject, the great number of privileged estates belonging to the crown, the nobility, the church and different towns, the want of hands occasioned by the military service, which falls principally on the inhabitants of great towns, and also a common custom among the nobility, that of not living on their estates, but of letting them on long leases to farmers, who sublet them to labourers; lastly, the want of communications, occasioned by the bad state of the roads. Government has endeavoured to put an end to all these abuses; but civil divisions and an impoverished treasury have hitherto prevented the proposed improvements. Cattle. The wretched state of agriculture must have necessarily some effect both on the number and quality of the cattle, and the same effect operates in its turn on the culture of the soil. The days on which the people abstain from butcher meat, make up nearly a third part of the year; hence they are obliged to receive annually from foreigners 280,000 hundred weights of dried or salted fish, an article which costs them every year about L.415,000. The bad quality of the grass, and the husbandman is not anxious to improve it, the little profit he derives from milk, being unable to convert it into butter or cheese, account sufficiently for the dependence of Portugal on her neighbours. The oil obtained from its neglected olives is so ill made that it cannot be a source of profit; indeed, if the quantity of the same article which is imported, be compared with the quantity exported, it may be found that the former exceeds the latter in value by L.5000. Under better management, Portugal could not only supply her colonies but several foreign countries with oil. The provinces of Mino, Tras-os-Montes and Beira are * Salt butter and cheese are imported from Holland and England, fruitful, but chiefly in grain. The greater part of Estre- BOOK madura and Algarva remains uncultivated; the principal CXXXVIII products of the last province consist in figs and almonds. Pears and apples are cultivated in the other parts of the country, chestnuts abound everywhere, and those of Colares and Portaleyre are as much extolled as the figs of Almada. Estremadura is enriched by the sale of oranges and lemons, which are prized in every country. The wines of Portugal are not less celebrated, that of the upper Duero is well known in England by the name of port; the others are the muscadine wines of Carcavelos, Setubal, and the white wines of Algarva. Portugal exports annually almonds and dried figs, of which the ordinary value may be about L.21,000, oranges to the amount of L.84,000, and 47,000 pipes of wine, worth more than L.1,830,000. It has excited surprise that the country people understand Animals. so little about rearing silk worms and bees; if these branches of rural economy were better known, the inhabitants might add considerably to their wealth. But the other products of the animal kingdom are equally neglected; the sheep might be much improved, the flocks are numerous, particularly in the province of Beira, from which they are driven in the winter season into Alen-Tejo. The wool, indeed, is less valuable than that of Spain, still it is purchased by strangers, but the quantity exported does not yield more than L.17,000. The horses are inferior to those of Castille and Andalusia, although small, they are light and well made; it requires only a moderate degree of care to improve the breed, and to increase the number, which at present is very inconsiderable. The mules are not numerous, but of a good kind, large, strong and docile. mals. Wolves haunt the forests and the mountains, and the Wild aniwild cat frequents the desert lands. Wild goats, although less common than formerly, are not unfrequently seen in the Serra of Geres. The stag, the roe and the wild boar appear sometimes in the woods; hares are rare, and rabbits, less numerous than in Spain. According to an author, on whose accuracy we rely, the insects of northern Africa * Essai Statistique by A. Balbi. BOOK are found on the heaths, the butterflies, common to the CXXXVIII south of France, on the sides of the Estrella, and the sca Fish. Religion. rab of the north on the heights of Tras-os-Montes. Vipers and other reptiles are concealed in the mountains; it is not uncommon to observe in the fields, nay, even in the houses, the Mauritanian cordylus, an animal which the Portuguese abhor, attributing to it qualities that it does not possess, and not appreciating the services it renders by destroying many hurtful insects. The rivers and coasts abound in fish of every sort; shads, eels, sardel, soles and flounders are taken in great plenty; some of the other kinds are the Muroena ophis, the Scomber pelamis and the Xiphias. From such abundance Portugal might derive its principal wealth, but government has neglected these important fishings. Three centuries ago Portuguese fishermen competed with the Dutch on the shores of Newfoundland, but at present they can hardly explore their own coasts. Although their trade requires a considerable outlay, although the taxes on the produce of their industry are excessive, in short, although poor and wretched, their number amounted some years ago to more than 18,000: but many, it is said, unable to live in their own land, seek the means of subsistence in the American or English navy. Different writers have affirmed that the Portuguese are degraded by ignorance and superstition. A few remarks on the religion, manners and lite: ature of the people, may serve perhaps to dissipate errors which have been often repeated. Of late years greater toleration has been shown in Portugal, as well as in most states under the influence of European civilization. Catholicism is the established religion, but the others are tolerated. The principles published by the Cortes in 1821, have effected this happy change; the tribunal of the inquisition was then abolished, which derived indeed no support from public opinion. The number of ecclesiastics was greatly exaggerated by the geographers of the last century, and writers of the first merit have believed and repeated their blunders. It might be proved, In the article Portugal, in the Dictionnaire d'Economie Politique de l'Encyclopedie Methodique, the number of ecelesiastics is said to exceed 300,000 individuals. |